Twyford Bridge 09 June 2011

We woke to bright sunshine and rain, a fine combination, by the time we set off at 9 15 am. the rain had stopped and unlike yesterday the wind had dropped considerably. There had been several boats passed before we set off, most of them travelling north and we met another 13 by mid day, the afternoon was much quieter. The eighth boat we met this morning, on a bend ended up hitting us about 5 foot behind the bow. I had seen him coming as it was a clear bend so I held well back and hard in to the side to give him plenty of room. Obviously I didn’t hold back far enough as he started round the bend well but then ran very wide, I was in hard astern but it was to late to get clear of him, a bit more blue to touch up.

We had several showers in the course of the day but not enough to put a big coat on. At Claydon there was a boat just leaving the top lock as we arrived so that worked well and but the time we reached the second there was a boat in that as well. We caught up with a single hander half way down the flight on the bend. It was the first time we had seen him but he was a bit slow, even with us closing the gates for him when he left we still caught him up before he entered the next lock all the way to Cropredy where we were pleased to see he had pulled over.

In Cropredy the pound was well down and a lot of the moored boats to the south of Cropredy where hard aground with their counters out of the water. We met a few boats between here and Banbury where it rained a bit more. To the south of Banbury there was a pair of Hotel Boats Kerala & Karnataka moored and looking empty. Looking at there schedule next week they leave Oxford for Warwick, then just below Grants Lock we met Snipe but no Taurus in tow. We carried on a bit further to just before Twyford Bridge and pulled in for the night at 6 15 pm .